CES 2013: Micron demos DDR4 DIMMs, announces 20nm Crucial M500 SSDs at $0.60/GB
Subject: Storage, Shows and Expos | January 10, 2013 - 11:12 AM | Allyn Malventano
Tagged: micron, crucial, ces 2013, CES
At the Micron/Crucial, we were shown an expansion to their DDR3 memory line, to include lower profile parts:
These reduced height modules should make for easier installation into HTPC and other small form factor PCs and even 1U Servers.
Next we saw DDR4 running at its native 2133 MHz speed. Here is what the DDR4 DIMM looks like:
Note the slight bulge at the center of the pin area. This is to make installation easier, as there is a considerable increase in pin count, which would have made installation more difficult if not for that design feature. Note the increased contact density in this pic:
Last (and most certainly not least), Micron announced their next SSD Series, the M500. This line uses a newer Marvell controller with Micron engineered firmware, driving 20nm IMFT flash:
All models will employ the enterprise feature of a capacitor bank used to store some reserve power. This helps to minimize any possible data loss should power be interrupted while data is being written:
Micron told me they are planning a 1TB model, running *MLC* flash (not TLC), and they are shooting for a price point of $600. That's $0.60/GB! If this scales down at the lower capacity points, we should be in for some pretty nice price dips in Solid State Storage for 2013!
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
CES 2013: Western Digital thin 5mm and 7mm hard drives now also come in hybrid SSHD!
Subject: Storage, Shows and Expos | January 9, 2013 - 10:03 PM | Allyn Malventano
Tagged: CES, ces 2013, western digital, wdc, sshd, hybrid, 5mm, 7mm
Today Western Digital showed me their new 5mm and 7mm mobile hard drives. These are very thin, intended for Ultrabooks, and come not only in the familiar Blue product line, but also in a new Solid State Hard Drive (SSHD). The new thin hybrid models are dubbed WD Black. The 5mm Blue and Black will be available in 500GB capacities:
Adding another 500GB to reach a 1TB capacity point requires another platter, and therefore another 2mm, bringing the 1TB Blue and Black to 7mm:
The WD Black SSHD will come with either 16 ot 24GB of flash memory cache (varying based on OEM configuration / request). More to follow on these once we can get some hours logged on their new models.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
CES 2013: OCZ reworks product lines, releases PCIe-based Vector SSD
Subject: Storage, Shows and Expos | January 8, 2013 - 09:30 PM | Allyn Malventano
Tagged: vector PCIe, vector, ocz, ces 2013, CES
Today at CES, OCZ released the Vector PCIe SSD:
This is essentially a RevoDrive, still using VCA 2.0 as the method of tying a pair of SSDs together, only in this case OCZ has ditched SandForce in favor of their new Indilinx parts lifted from their Vector Series. I witnessed the pre-release part turning in 160,000 4k random read IOPS and upwards of 1GB/sec sequential throughput.
OCZ was also showing a new iteration of their VXL enterprise caching software:
The new software, dubbed LXL, is currently in beta testing. LXL is linux based and employs a caching driver to tie the SSD into the SAN or other local storage. The benefit is that there is also a user-land application and GUI that can 'tune' the caching driver based on default and custom scripts. This tuneability lets the administrator control what sort of data gets cached based on the expected workloads placed on the storage system. This prevents infrequently accessed data from pushing the speed-critical content out of the cache, and should prove more effective than typical caching drivers which are generally unintelligent on their own.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
CES 2013: Corsair Voyager Air Offers Wireless Mobile Storage and Home NAS Support
Subject: General Tech, Networking, Storage, Mobile | January 8, 2013 - 09:00 AM | Morry Teitelman
Tagged: wi-fi, Voyager Air, NAS, mobile, corsair, CES
The newest member member of the Corsair Voyager family of devices, the Voyager Air, drives Corsair's entry into the home networking arena with their all-in-one mobile drive and home NAS (network attached storage) solution.
Courtesy of Corsair
The Voyager Air is as versatile as it is sleek, with support for the following hiding beneath its stylish hood:
- Up to 1TB capacity drive
- Rechargeable battery
- Wi-Fi (802.11n/b/g), GigE Ethernet, and USB 3.0 support built-in
- Wireless hub support for shared internet support via passthrough technology
Courtesy of Corsair
The Voyager Air comes in a variety of colors as well, more than enough to match anyone's sense of style. According to Corsair, the Voyager Air units should be accessible at an electronics retailer near you in a 500GB model for $179.99 MRSP and a 1TB model for $219.99 MSRP.
Press release after the break.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
Corsair Launches 'World's Fastest' USB 3.0 Flash Drives
Subject: Memory, Storage | January 8, 2013 - 09:00 AM | Chris Barbere
Tagged:
Corsair has announced their new line of "Flash Voyager GT Turbo" flash drives that will blow the doors off of most USB drives on the market and might even give some SSD's a run for their money.
These USB 3.0 drives will be natively compatible with Windows, Mac OS X and Linux and backwards compatible with USB 2.0 ports. With read speeds of up to 260 MB/s and write speeds of up to 235 MB/s, these drives should meet any high speed data transfer needs.
The drives will come in three sizes, 32 GB, 64 GB and 128 GB, but that speed comes at a cost. The 32 GB drive will have a suggested retail price of $49.99 (USD), the 64 GB will retail for $89.99, and the 128 GB drive will weigh in at a hefty $179.99 when released.
The drives are backed by a nice 5 year warranty and the drive itself looks fairly well made, but will the hefty price tag turn consumers off? Only time will tell.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
Connected Data's Transporter spotted in the wild at CES
Subject: Storage, Shows and Expos | January 8, 2013 - 04:25 AM | Allyn Malventano
Tagged: CES, ces 2013, transporter
At CES we got a look at some real Transporter hardware in action, and got a few of our questions answered. First some pics:
Now for the new stuff we learned:
- There is now a Windows as well as a Mac desktop / laptop client.
- Shared folders can be mounted and sync'd by remote users who do not have a Transporter on their network.
- Will be available in 1TB, 2TB, and no drive configurations (but you must install your own for the Transporter to function, as it has no internal storage capability).
- WiFi capability (in addition to GigE) will *possibly* be available in two speed grade options (i.e. 1x1 or 2x2), the faster grade carrying an additional cost.
The rest of the details on the Transporter are in our last post covering it. We look forward to testing one of these shortly and will report back.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
CES 2013 Video: ASUS RAIDR Express PCIe SSD and ARES II Dual HD 7970 Graphics Card
Subject: Graphics Cards, Storage, Shows and Expos | January 8, 2013 - 01:07 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: raidr express, ces 2013, CES, ASUS ROG, asus, ARES II
No stop at the ASUS suite at CES is complete without talking to JJ and learning about what is new in the world of PC components. Not only did we talk with him about the upcoming ARES II limited edition dual Radeon HD 7970 graphics card (that Chris has already written about earlier in the day) but also we learned that ASUS plans to enter the PCIe solid state market with the ROG RAIDR Express.
Yeah, you read that right!
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
CES 2013 Day 2: Samsung
Subject: Storage, Shows and Expos | January 7, 2013 - 09:48 PM | Allyn Malventano
Tagged: Samsung, ces 2013, CES
I attended the Samsung press conference today, where several new products were announced. Among these was the 2013 line of Smart TV's:
The 2013 series is just a minor cosmetic redesign with a thinner (1/4") bezel. The real difference was in the SmartTV functionality, which has a facelift and now runs on a quad core processor. Samsung also announced the first round of the Evolution Kit - an upgrade module that brings the quad core and new UI to the 2012 SmartTV series. The evolution kit is pricey at nearly $500, but that's still way cheaper than buying a whole new set.
Samsung showed some new Series 7 Laptops, with displays upgraded to HD resolution and 10-point multitouch capability. They also showed a new compact camera series boasting interchangeable lenses, one of which Samsung claims can shoot 3D through a single f/1.8 unit:
They also annunced some appliances, the one catching everyone's ear being a refridgerator called the T9000 (no, I'm not kidding).
The coolest visual was the showing of an 85" 4k OLED TV. Pictures simply do not do this set any justice, but here is one for posterity:
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
SanDisk's affordable Ultra Plus SSD family
Subject: Storage | January 7, 2013 - 06:57 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: ssd, sandisk ultra plus, 256GB, Marvell, 88SS9175
Using the Marvell 88SS9175 controller, the SanDisk Ultra Plus family of SSDs comes in 128GB, 256GB and 512GB models all of which come with a 3 year warranty. As you can see below, the 256GB model that Legit Reviews recently received does not take up much space in the drives shell. SanDisk's nCache technology is featured on these drives and helps boost the performance of 4k writes but does not fare so well on large files. With decent performance and a price under $1/GB these drives are worth checking out ... unless you want to wait to see what comes out of CES.
"SanDisk is best known for their memory products and with that, they've been doing a number of SSDs on both consumer and enterprise fronts. Their latest offering that came across our desk is the Ultra Plus line being powered by the Marvell 88SS9175 controller and SanDisk's own 19nm NAND. The 6Gbps interfaced drives are marketed towards the both the desktop and mobile computing crowds with promises of strong performance, high reliability and power efficiency. It comes standard in the 7mm, 2.5" form factor so it should be good to go for most Ultrabooks as well..."
Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
- SanDisk Ultra Plus SSD @ AnandTech
- KingFast F3 Series 2.5" SATAIII SSD 240GB KF2509MCF Review @ Madshrimps
- Understanding MTBF in SSD - What Does an SSD's MTBF Mean for You @ hardCOREware
- Mushkin Chronos DX 480GB @ Tweaktown
- Kingston SSDNow KC100 240GB SSD Upgrade Kit Review @ NikKTech
- Rosewill RDED-12001 External Slim Aluminum Blu-Ray Writer @ Hi Tech Legion
- LaCie 5big NAS Pro @ AnandTech
- Asustor AS-606T NAS @ techPowerUp
- Infortrend EonNAS Pro 200 2-Bay NAS @ Tweaktown
- LaCie 5big NAS Pro Preview: User-friendly hybrid cloud @ Hardware.info
CES 2013: Kingston Lets You Buy Big Expensive USB Drives
Subject: General Tech, Storage, Shows and Expos | January 7, 2013 - 06:26 PM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: CES, ces 2013, kingston, thumb drive
Typical USB and SD-style memory card storage scale pretty effectively to the $1 per GB except for the really small drives which cost proportionally more due to non-negligible packaging and distribution costs. This ratio puts 16 and 32GB removable memory in the hands of just about anyone who even remotely desires it. However, for your really large storage needs, a removal hard drive is pretty much your only choice.
If you were to extend the $1/GB ratio up to drive sizes of 512GB or a terabyte then you are looking at $500-1000 worth of silicon in your pocket. Still, Kingston believes that if you desire a full terabyte of storage that you should be able to give them money to provide it to you.
Unfortunately it does not quite scale at the $1/GB ratio.
The Kingston DataTraveler HyperX Predator 3.0 has four unique names and about a four-fold increase in price-per-Gigabyte compared to standard USB flash memory. The 512GB version is set to retail for $1750 per stick. For some reason Kingston would not comment on the expected retail price of the 1TB version? I guess it is a case of if you need to ask…
If you are still interested in purchasing this thumb-drive -- then for one it must mean something to you -- but it does have 240MB/s read speeds and 160MB/s write speeds over USB3.0. If you are looking to actually use your 512GB drive then you would be able to fill it up in about an hour. Then again, if it does mean that much to you, Kingston apparently is happy to provide.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
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